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OT: you write "UML has essentially become analogous to cursive. You learn about it early on, and its important to have a notion of how to read it. But ultimatel
by wolfgke 13y ago
OT: you write "UML has essentially become analogous to cursive. You learn about it early on, and its important to have a notion of how to read it. But ultimately, since we don't use it every day, we basically never use it."
I come from Germany, where nearly everybody handwrites in cursive for text longer than a few words. And I must say: it's a lot faster than writing in block letters (of course writing in shorthand would be even faster - I don't understand why this isn't taught in schools anymore - my father could and took this as elective course).
So: what is the reason why writing in cursive is disliked in the US?
- aggronn 13y agoYou usually learn cursive around the age of 7, while the teacher insists that cursive is all you will ever use once after that. In high school, I was told all the time that they only accept cursive in college. I think the movement away from cursive is relatively recent, and entirely associated with the fact that virtually no teacher or professor will accept work that isn't typed up. You learn cursive in 3rd grade, then from there on all of your work is done on computers so you never reinforce it.
- ollysb 13y agoI had to look up what cursive was, for me that's just what you call handwriting. Are you saying that there's a move towards non-joined up handwriting?
- kevincrane 13y agoIn America, what you call "non-joined up handwriting" we call "handwriting". I don't know anyone (anecdotally) that uses cursive on a daily basis except for signing checks and contracts.
- ollysb 13y agoNon cursive hand seems like an incredibly slow way to write, impractical for classes etc. is this because everyone is bringing a laptop to class and just doesn't write much at all? I'm from the UK and as far as I know they still move kids into cursive as soon as possible. From personal experience at school I recall the quality of my writing was dramatically improved once I moved to a computer so I can understood a move in that direction. I'm just surprised cursive isn't still used because for note taking situations it is still incredibly useful.
- ensignavenger 13y agoHandwriting generally refers to both joined and non-joined writing. If there is a need to distinguish, usually people say cursive or print. As in "Print your name and sign below..." Cursive in my experience is very difficult for someone other than the writer to read- even when it is written neatly, it is more difficult to read than print or type with a decent font selected :)